CEDARS WATCHING SUNSET

Cedars Watching Sunset, Oil on linen, 20X40, $900

This month, Cedars Watching Sunset, was accepted in the national juried show, Dimensions 2012, in Winston-Salem, NC. It will be on display at Associated Artists gallery located on the corner of 4th Street and Cherry St. until the end of May, 2012.

What was the inspiration of Cedars Watching the Sunset? Driving home from Elodie Farm to Hillsborough along St. Mary’s, I was struck by the beautiful sunset. Sunsets are so difficult to paint in plein air as they change every second. One glorious scene moment to moment unveils itself and the best you can do is sit and watch the display and let it pour over you. Which is exactly what I did. 


As I neared Schley Road I noticed a row of cedar trees that appeared to be gazing at the sunset as awestruck as I and I just had to paint the scene. These trees took on an anthropomorphic quality. Their pleasing shapes standing erect and their needles and branches aglow with the glorious colors of the sun screamed out to me. I felt the glow of the sun deep inside my chest. I headed home as the sun dipped beneath the horizon and went straight to the studio to begin mixing colors to replicate the colors that were swimming in my head. The warm orange and pinks with dabs of cerulean that lit up the sky. The deep colors of blues and green that included prussian blue, midnight blue, peacock blue, cerulean, indigo, teals, forest green, olives, even eggplant and magenta. They brought to mind my 64 color crayola box of crayons that was my best friend as a preschooler.  


This is an oil on linen painting of Cedars Watching the Sunset if framed with a North Carolina maple floater frame. I love cedar trees.